Category Archives: School Counsellor’s Desk

Being a first full time school counselor it has been a novel experience working with the little ones so far… they can sometimes be quirky, have short attention spans, and be rather difficult to reason with. They can also inject humour into the session and can be adorable little brats when they realise they can learn to manipulate the situation.

We all have insecurities within us and it usually implies that there is a weakness, a flaw which is the opposite of secure and in general brings our functional levels down. It can extend to this feeling of needing acceptance within and often children won’t communicate this – where in they want themselves to be “closed off for protection”.

As a counselor I create a safe emotional space where I can encourage and help facilitate my counsellees to view that very insecurity as vulnerability which would translate to be the same emotion on a different spectrum. It has more implications where one can afford to be more open to taking risks and investing emotionally without worrying about getting hurt in the process of discovery. The aim is learn emotional immunity in the long run.

Again it’s within the response that we either grow or allow ourselves to become emotionally injured by something, someone or an experience.

Learning to accept the full range of human emotions is vital. We are beings that have polarities within us. We have joy, we have rage. We have bliss, we have bitterness. We have insecurities, we have vulnerabilities, we have fears, and we have courage. So if we look at ourselves as having polarities (like night and day, summer and winter) it’s all very natural to go through each emotion, but it is the response and the action taken that is going to either nurture growth or not.

Mindfulness is a great way to learn to balance the ups and the downs. Opening up to experiencing the emotion without judgement is a valuable tool and can be a very strong life tool that I have been working on with my children in the past few months here.

Our students through being the source of stress can also be great stress relievers. Their energy and humour are rather infectious. So this school year remember to look for the cute side of your little monsters. Their claws aren’t scary all the time.